For many Lake County motorists, the two-year construction phase of the Rollins Road Gateway Project in Round Lake Beach was a headache with a solution to a problem that had plagued residents for decades.

In fall 2015, what turned out to be the largest road-improvement project in Lake County history provided a Canadian National Railway overpass at Rollins Road, along with additional lanes and a modified intersections at Rollins and Route 83, which eased flow to an estimated 41,500 vehicles per day.

Aliza Guren, owner of the Round Lake Beach Commons shopping center partly used during construction, saw her troubles with the project end only recently. On June 29, after four years of litigation with the county, she was awarded $7.1 million for damage to her property.

The two-week trial found Lake County and the Illinois Department of Transportation liable for the damage.

Michael Schmidt/Lake County News-Sun

The Rollins Gateway project at Rollins Road and Route 83, seen here following its completion in October 2015, was the largest construction project in the Lake County Division of Transportation’s history.

The Rollins Gateway project at Rollins Road and Route 83, seen here following its completion in October 2015, was the largest construction project in the Lake County Division of Transportation’s history. (Michael Schmidt/Lake County News-Sun)

Lake County Administrator Barry Burton said Tuesday the county will foot the entire bill as part of the project's $68 million budget.

The original offer Guren received was substantially lower, at $2.7 million, said her attorney Robert O'Donnell. That was after Lake County and IDOT officials used quick-take authority, meaning the needed piece of property was used immediately, while its fair-market value was determined and negotiated to expedite the construction.

"We could've been trying to figure that out for years, and motorists would've sat in traffic for longer," Burton said of the decision to not halt construction while negotiations with Guren were ongoing.

Guren rejected the $2.7 million, finding it an inadequate amount of compensation, O'Donnell said, because of a number of issues that included concessions she had to make on leases with new and established tenants in the shopping center's 17 spaces.

According to a statement from Guren's legal team, IDOT requested the condemnation of Round Lake Commons' property in April 2013. The statement added that within three months, the quick-take proceeding led to Lake County acquiring outright less than a quarter-acre at the southeast corner of Route 83 and Rollins Road.

The county also was awarded a temporary construction easement over a portion of the shopping center parking lot.

"There was loss of visibility, accessibility and extensive physical damage that needed to be repaired," O'Donnell said. "Not an ordeal that everyone has time, effort and means to fight — not without expense and risk."